Of my many shopping missions for Mr G, this one was particularly notable. I've been buying cavolo nero multiple times for our cherished gentleman from South Acton, but I have never tried it myself. Since I was walking, not running, to missions recently, I purchased the mythical cabbage for myself while completing Mr G's usual list. I then cooked the leaves for dinner, and I must say, they were exquisite. Maybe next time we'll exchange cavolo nero recipes with Mr G?

St Mary’s Church of South Ealing is well-known to GoodGymers, whether through the weekly food cupboard sessions on Mondays, the gardening tasks in the churchyard, or the annual Christmas tree decoration. Tonight's task was a unique one. The local community was preparing for the first service to mark the start of the ministry of their new vicar, Revd. Joy French. Renowned for their Christmas tidy-up expertise, our team was asked to clean the gallery and tackle cobwebs in the church.

A team of runners and a cyclist arrived at the church to meet the member of the community, Brian, who handed them the tools: a few brushes, a dustpan, and two very long brushes - the cobweb busters. Freya and Kash, excited about getting the extra range, grabbed the super brushes and stayed on the ground floor to clean under the gallery. Iram, Chris, and Sevan, armed with brushes, wipes, and a dustpan, headed upstairs to handle the dust in the gallery.

While dusting, the upstairs team learned that their favourite church tower, an attraction to visit after each Christmas clean-up, was no longer accessible due to safety concerns. Meanwhile, the cobweb vanquishers downstairs discovered a bust of a biblical prophet with two left hands! We completed the job in just an hour and are hoping now that the community will be proud of their dust-free church while welcoming Reverend Joy.

Next week, we are staying in Ealing Broadway for the Tuesday evening session and tackling thistles and brambles in Walpole Park - sign up now to join us!.

If you want to visit St Mary’s during the day, sign up for one (or more) of the weekly sessions at the church’s food cupboard here.

Each Monday morning, GoodGym lends a hand at the South Ealing Food Cupboard helping the wonderful volunteers sort through surplus food and get it ready to share with the local community. This morning Martin, Beata, and Iram were on hand to unload the lorry and unpack a varied selection of food.

The delivery included cartons of oat milk, cranberry juice, huge cabbages, potatoes, carrots and bread. There was a brief debate over whether the oat milk was past its best, but upon investigation we learnt the date had simply been misprinted. What looked like June (6) was actually September (9). No oat milk spilled needed to be spilled! Unusually, there was no meat or ready meals this week. Instead, there were loads of ready made sandwiches.

With a prompt delivery and a smaller haul than the last few weeks, the team had everything sorted in record breaking time!

After running a half-marathon and earning yet another medal from the Big Half, Steph caught up with running friends and beat the tube strike to make it to Blondin Park. He was about to meet Sevan and Kash at the GoodGym stall at Brentford Festival and inspire more locals to do good while getting fit.

The last shift of our volunteer-fishing campaign at the festival saw an increase in children’s interest in our game with prizes, which we’ve been turning into an opportunity to talk to parents about flexible volunteering.

The closer to 6 pm, the more gazebos were seen taken down - including a six-legged one we had erected with five GoodGymers, which was kindly dismantled by eight police officers. We lent a hand in taking down a neighbouring gazebo that we had also put up in the morning. The community group we had helped saved us by lending us scissors, without which we wouldn’t have been able to strip down our own stall.

Grateful for the opportunity to showcase GoodGym at the festival, we stayed a bit longer to dismantle the Brentford Festival flags, that sadly won’t be used next year. It was time to say goodbye to a great community event that had been around for 20 years. While we will miss helping out at the festival prep, we are hoping to team up with the fantastic event manager, Linda, again, to support the Blondin Park Consortium in improving the lovely green space between Northflieds and Brentford.

Just when Sevan and Kash were the only two left at the GoodGym stall at the Brentford Festival, the human traffic suddenly picked up, and the festival was in full swing!

The wind became less of a challenge compared to attempts to sneak out at the right moment to get lunch and quickly devour it without missing out on talking to passers-by - some of them quite prominent in the area, others promising (as new recruits). The GoodGymers saw some familiar faces: friends and task owners from Ealing community groups, and met new people interested in getting active and giving back to the community.

The new signs with the design from Jacob from the Central Team were a great improvement compared to our previous events. They definitely helped to get across the message about supporting the local community and older people.

After helping with the setup of the last Brentford Festival in the morning, Sevan and Kash had little time left to prepare GoodGym’s own stall, kindly offered by the retiring rockstar of festival organising, Linda. Luckily, Eleanor and Bryon stayed to lend them two pairs of helpful hands!

With the festival taking place on the grounds of the Ealing Borough, and Brentford technically being in the Borough of Hounslow, two GoodGyms joined forces to spread the word about doing good while getting fit among West Londoners. Michelle and Luis cycled from Chiswick to join the Ealing reps, Sevan and Kash.

The first shift of the volunteer hunting had the most GoodGymers at the stall, but not as much traffic yet, as the festival had only started to warm up. On the bright side, that gave the four a chance to resolve any technical and strategic matters, such as which side the stall should face, how to prevent the signs from toppling over due to wind, and where to get cable ties.

We are looking forward to seeing new GoodGym signups across Ealing and Hounslow, and hopefully growing numbers at our sessions!